Stress seems to come from all different directions in life. It can come from your relationships, workplace home environment, sudden losses or from any other area of sudden change in your world. It can also come from positive changes such as getting married, moving into a new home, graduating or getting a job promotion.
So, what is it about stress that makes us react so differently and cause our lives to feel so chaotic ? Why does it seem to have so much power over us whenever it appears and cause us to to lose our sense of control? Once we are better able to understand exactly what it is, we are better able to handle it whenever it comes our way.
Any kind of “change” in your life can cause stress. It can be from both negative and positive life changes. How it affects one person to the next is highly unique as it is an individual phenomenon. For some, stress can get them geared up with excitement to accomplish extreme goals and tasks. Their muscles are pumped for action, senses are heightened, awareness is sharpened. This reaction to stress can be very useful in life, however, as long as they do not appear too frequently to this level Constant stress can take a heavy toll on the mind, body and emotional well-being which can come in the form of adrenal-fatigue. Your health and happiness depend on responding to stress appropriately.
To many people, conditions of stress can cause discomfort, pain, anxiety, excitement, fear and uncertainty in life. What is stressful to one person might be exhilarating to another. While some people handle stress fairly well, others might fall apart. It comes down to coping mechanisms and our stress tolerance. Our personality, the level of stress and the way we handle it all factor into our stress management success. How we deal with stress, depends on who we are!
So what is stress? It is a relatively complex interaction of external and internal processes caused by a shift or life change. Life is full of stimuli – some we like and some we don’t. When faced with stress, our body recognizes an alarm and pours stress hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream. Adrenaline produces the fight-or-flight response, increasing your heart and breathing rate which sends blood straight to our vital organs. It can also help our blood clot faster drawing blood away from the skin during an injury. Cortisol flows through our body to keep the stress response responding as long as the stress continues.
But, if we were to experience the constant release of adrenaline and cortisol every day, it would tire us out. We would start to experience exhaustion, physical pain, diminished concentration and increased frustration, irritability and insomnia. Pain can also cause stress, indirectly. As an example, with a bad headache, your body may not experience direct physiological stress, but your emotional reaction to the pain might cause your body significant stress.
Two quick ways proven to help reduce stress right away are:
Be on Time – running late can be a huge life stressor as you are constantly trying to “catch up”. It also causes stress by reflecting poorly due to looking unreliable and inconsiderate. Gain control of your time and watch how much more control in life you will receive along with it. By having more time on your hands creatives efficiency, a clear mind and greatly lowers your stress levels.
Become more Organized – do you constantly feel overwhelmed with all you have to do? Become your own personal assistant! Invest in an appointment book or journal to help organize your tasks and responsibilities. Reducing stress means reducing life chaos. It is a great investment.
And, if you might not be feeling a great deal of stress at this moment, how will you react when it storms into your life? We all need to start managing it now, so that when larger stressors do occur, we will be better equipped to handle those changes.
Stress management is your friend! With it, you can better manage, even eliminate, the negative stressors in your life. Finding the stress management techniques that work best for you is the “key”. And, many more tips coming your way in upcoming posts!
We might not be able to prevent stress in our life, as change is inevitable. But, we can definitely get stress more under control and help reduce it greatly, when it does come our way.
